Search Results for "Show Review"

Read a very well written account of the Nine Inch Nails‘ Panorama set on Randall’s Island over at Metal Sucks HERE. It is a pretty inspiring read and will remind you why music ought to be more than disposable.

In This Moment positively owned their headlining Albany, NY show on 4/19 with Motionless In White, Avatar and Gemini Syndrome all also doing their part to ignite the night to crazy levels of fun for everyone who attended.

One of the best shows I have seen in awhile made it worth it to trek out on a kind of gloomy Thursday night to the Hudson Valley, NY’s best indie concert venue BSP Kingston (I also am partial to Bearsville and The Chance for mostly other genres). There was a solid, if infrequent, metal booking of three bands who I really enjoy, Kingston’s own sludgy grimers Clover, expansive Boston space trio InAeona and the proggy mathic doom of Junius.

Of the three, I had been a fan of all of them for awhile (especially InAeona who are in my top ten fave bands in the world right now), but I’d only had the fortune of raging to Clover before. I was a bit fried from a long concert the night before in Albany, but am so glad I soldiered out to this smaller town show.

I don’t know about you, but I just turned 38. Any chance to break out of the
mundane and remember the mysterious or esoteric wonder behind the veil of
everyday life is a welcome release. When it comes in the form of explosive,
ethereal or downright menacing and theatrical metal, even better. Polish dark
legends Behemoth‘s current US tour promoting their most ambitious album to
date, The Satanist, with the much hyped Myrkur in tow on their first really
proper stateside trek certainly falls into the category of awesome excuses to
get out of the house…and it sure was.

I’m not going to go too crazy with a long ass back story here like I normally would. You guys know why you’re here reading this post! The fact that Metal Riot hasn’t asked me to stop writing about my love for METAL CHURCH yet is nothing short of a miracle, which I believe we should be expecting miracles when the METAL CHURCH is involved. If you want the backstory, you can check back with my review of the phenomenal new album, XI. (editor’s note: We love Metal Church and encourage Drew in his allegiance, though we agree that it is a miracle…that Aberdeen produced both Metal Church AND Kurt Cobain).

This posting will be a tale of a dashing young metalhead (Me), a slew of kick-ass bands, and the return of one of metal’s greatest voices.

It has honestly been quite a while since I’ve attended a metal show. Between the work schedule I have, and general disinterest in majority of the shows that happened to fall on the few days off I have, it has just been impossible for me to get to a good show. Then, one day, something magical happened…

I’ll admit, my main reason for attending this show was to catch the metal queen herself, the mighty DORO PESCH! Y&T have always been cool too, but were never one of my top bands.

DORO is just one of those people who are always hyped. I’ve never once seen her, or spoken to her when she seemed to be just “chilled” and laid back. She is a constant ball of energy, just radiating love for what she’s doing. She will come out on stage, command audience participation, give you one of the most energetic metal shows you’ll ever witness, and then just be the greatest person you can talk to afterwards, and will be just as excited to talk to fans as fans are to talk to her! It’s at a point where I can believe that while I’m back at the car telling my friends “Holy shit guys, I just talked to DORO, and we were discussing some of the cover songs she does!”, she’s in the bus talking to JOHNNY DEE (DORO’s drummer) and telling him “,Holy shit! I just talked to a fan named Andrew! He was wondering if we were going to cover any DOKKEN songs!”

I’m at this double excitement level for sure right now. I’m at my first show in forever, and I am minutes from once again bearing witness to the thunderous God-like energy that is known as a DORO Show. The lights dim, and the Chance venue is packed with people, young and older, chanting DORO’s name. The band begins with “I Rule The Ruins”, and DORO comes running out with the “HEY! HEY! HEY!” chants that would set the tone for the night. The energy gauge tops at 10, and DORO kicked it off at 11. Nigel Tufnel would be proud.

Posted by XxCrashQueenxX on Thursday, February 18, 2016 at 9:13 PM (PST)

California Is For Lovers…of Nostalgia

On February 17th in Anaheim, California I had the privilege of seeing Hawthorne Heights in all of their If Only You Were Lonely glory on the Three Headed MonsTOUR. The MonsTOUR line up is Hawthorne Heights, The Ataris, and Mest. I will admit that when this tour was announced I was very excited.

The Ataris and Mest and random special appearance by London Falling were all great. I was impressed by London Falling whose front man reminded me of a very early Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day. The energy was very high and extremely fun.

Liv from Leaves’ Eyes is always having interesting adventures and she talks about her astounding metal band’s recent days in El Salvador with loads of photos HERE

NO SLEEP FOR THE WICKEDAtrocity & Leaves’ Eyes across Latin America 2015A report by Liv Kristine

14. MaySan Salvador, El Salvador, greeted us with warm weather and sunshine. Great to have a nap at the hotel’s pool. The friendly staff provided us with coconut-pineapple-mango juice non stop. After three espressos on top our promoter team picked us up to take us to the venue. We knew it would be hot, but that gig was one big sauna! Two very friendly police officers paid us a visit, however, not to tell us about restrictions; they were interested in Joris’ blast beat drumming and life on the road, moreover, life in Europe. We were very happy to meet & greet out metal audience in El Salvador for the first time. In the backyard of the venue the mangoes were falling down every 2 minutes as we were taking photos and doing signings every. I wish this sweet, awesome fruit would grow in my own garden!

After Sevendust and Breaking Benjamin performed and rocked the house, the curtain concealing Shinedown was pulled down, and it was nothing but a kick ass rock show from then on. What shocked and surprised me were the paraphernalia of special stage effects Shinedown had in store. After explosions went off, I remember the singer Brent saying, “It’s cold up here, but don’t worry, we brought fire.”

I’ve been a fan of Walls of Jericho for years, ever since the old Hellfest2000 DVD with bands like Brother’s Keeper and Shai Hulud that Mic Todd gave me freakin’ 14 years ago (before we hated each other for a long time). There is one scene where Walls of Jericho’s confident vocalist Candace Kucsulain straight up flips some running dude over her and throws him into the crowd.

I was like ,”Ok, she’s a bad ass.”

I dug The Bound Feed The Gagged debut a lot but in all these years have always missed them live, even
on some bigger package tours. It was worth the wait, a blur of inspired messages and crunching guitar attack.

I have, however, seen Life Of Agony. This was my third time seeing the veteran
band at Starland, vocalist Mina’s professed “favorite venue in America”. They
never fail to impress at this place, even if one of their rowdier anthems is called
“Love To Let You Down.”

No, Mina’s birthday bash found the group and their single opening act both in top form, delivering fired up and relevant sets to a crowd eager for some stress relief but wary of recent events. On Twitter Caputo had written before the show:

Metal Riot’s Matt Slater hit up The Chance in Poughkeepsie, a favorite venue of this site, to shoot the powerful grooves and heavy barrage of Coal Chamber, Fear Factory and Jasta. Check out the shots BELOW.

I know you have probably heard the excellent new Coal Chamber album Rivals – read our interview with Dez on the album HERE – but you need to hear the great new Genexus record from Fear Factory, a step back up from the mixed bag of The Industrialist ( after the excellent Mechanize). And of course Jasta never, ever lets us down. He’s the biggest “as die hard as they come” type in the scene, something we could use more of in a new era of worse a.d.d. poseurs than ever before. It’s rad to see Jasta in a historically Hatebreed friendly venue like The Chance, especially hot on the heels of a massive Summer Breeze appearance. Inclusion is good, as this mix genre tour reminds, but also can’t fake dedication is something that all these bands prove makes metal even more rewarding for fans and musicians.

Now, where to begin? Let us begin with After The Burial’s unfortunate loss. After the eerie post by Justin Lowe stating that people were setting him up for crimes he hadn’t committed, the band took to Facebook stating that despite their efforts to assist Lowe that they had been unsuccessful in their attempts to pick him out of this slump that he had been in. The band cited mental illness as the reason for his off the wall Facebook post.

Read more thoughts/impressions BELOW and see band pics from Warped and Mayhem (RIP).

Faith No More‘s Sol Invictus is like the “Cirque Du Soleil from Hell” elegant Mad Max: Fury Road of summer rock albums, except it is a travesty it didn’t go number one at the charts. Mad Max didn’t have that problem, much to the chagrin of small dicked keyboard cowboys in #gamergate support group chatrooms who are too scared to jack each other off and get real or the Return Of “So Called” Kings losers who the Fury Road babes would never gie the time of day in this or any world. Just got out of the theater seeing it in 3D and it is in my head as I write this intro reflecting on the new Faith No More. Odd comparison? Well…It might be a bit sleeker model than the early FNM releases (or Mad Max films) but in economy of track time there is still plenty of room for maximized FNM goodness. Patton has earned his cult and the band sound more glorious and in effortlessly in command of anything they touch. Unlike Fury Road however there is far less bloodshed or refreshing plot “risks” taken as one might have expected, though the band delivered a killer release that sits proudly in their canon and is better than Album Of The Year, for sure. The live show is always a circus of skill, sly wit and devilish delivery with any Patton project. And in FNM’s corner is the fact that their kind of crazy is a lot better than Mel Gibson crazy, though in the new days of Bane Max, aka the dreamy and intense (I’m saying this because I often get told I look like him) Tom Hardy we have a real 100% bonafide action character to root for again without worrying if he is gonna hate Jews , make franchise disrespecting (aka no concern for innocent collatoral damage) mixed bag A Good Day To Die Hard or misgovern California. Neaaaghhh!!!

But some people still aren’t sold on Patton! They should be. He is undoubtedly miles ahead of the pack at pretty much all times. And if you don’t get the satire and snark and just want some Nickelback? Well, history will play the violins for you someday. It’s always funny until someone gets hurt, right? Well people get hurt when media, music and society pander to the lowest common fucking denominator in sex, equality, the arts and education all the time MORE! Don’t get me started, America. Anyone who would try to blame FNM and/or Rage Against The Machine for the rise of Limp Bizkit frat fans that led to raping chicks at Woodstock 99′ is an imbecile.

Le Butcherettes just did a split with and have an impending tour with The Melvins, another band with ties to Patton’s Ipecac and who take no prisoners and make no apologies. Like Melt Banana, Dillinger Escape Plan ,Dalek or any other artists Patton has championed over the years, Le Butcherettes are loved by generally smarter European Rock audiences, who generally only understand blunt statements more ala Five Finger Death Punch type rock fans. I hate to generalize and put up walls between human experience, but sometimes you gotta call it like you see it, baby. Le Butcherettes, have a bandleader in Teri Gender Bender who not only has the best “punk rock” name since Steve Ignorant of Crass but who sounds like PJ Harvey leading a riot brigade of styles into fearless, adrenaline pumping and downright sexy territory both musically and aesthetically, to say nothing of her eye popping appearance and Furiosa-esque confidence. Like Tool (who took out the Melvins, Isis and other great bands despite much of their fan base probably being fine if a butt rock band opened), Faith No More aren’t afraid to go with the cerebral choice over the brawny, easy way out. Like the new Mad Max. And therein lies hope for rock n roll, gender and social unity and the future of all that is good in this wasteland.

Continuing our two city coverage after Milwaukee, The Missing Link Tour thundered through New York City’s Central Park with Sweden’s protometal quartet Graveyard, with whom I interviewed that afternoon. Riding out the last of the day’s west-falling sunlight was Clutch, strong and heavy as ever in their 20 plus year career. As the night darkened, Mastodon took stage and the arboreal amphitheater, at first a simple stage nestled into a pleasant grove, now became much more ominous and powerful. It looked as if the trees were growing up and inward, reaching down from their stoic and gnarled height. The music cried a cacophony through the limbs and branches for acres and acres through the park. I’m sure neither the 5th Avenue neighbors nor the multitude of smitten couples out on The Lake in rowboats were too pleased. Actually, that sounds like a fucking rad date.

DROT returned strong to Poughkeepsie, NY and The Chance Theater when Testament, Exodus and young pups Shattered Sun hit town. Don’t fret, the old wolves still had it and the up and comers certainly growled and howled as well. The night arguably belonged to Exodus (with two Heathen members filling in, I believe), Steve Souza yelling at the crowd that he hadn’t played The Chance in years. Souza has been miraculous since his return to the band and as much as I love the Rob Dukes era stuff, Steve “Zetro” has been continuing to kick serious ass live and prove Blood In, Blood Out was no fluke. The whole crowd pumped their fists and chanted like crazed hyenas forced to obey the Gods.

That said, Shattered Sun opened the night and you never would’ve known they were a new band if they weren’t so baby faced. The boys from Alice, TX who are recent Victory Records roster additions completely kick started the night and from the get go had support from a crowd who had mostly never heard them. “Hope Within Hatred” filled the room with melodic thrashing goodness and hair and necks started banging accordingly. It will be great when these guys have more songs the crowd loves and let’s hope they don’t have any setbacks like recent hopefuls Lazarus A.D. who were doing so well as a new thrash band only to really slow down (plus, RIP to Lazarus’ drummer).

Testament were the proven metal icons of underground integrity that you’d expect. Like Anthrax these days the Testament guys are really on point with their vision, line up, new music and everything the fans crave. I cant wait for their next release! Chuck still has the most untouchable below in metal, though Mad Joe Black from Wisdom In Chains has a considerably huge bellow as well if you like hardcore music. But yeah, Testament!!!

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Gold are really good. You should listen to them. I classified them in our power metal category only because if Gold played power metal that would actually maybe be the weirdest experimental music ever and very rad. They DO play their own awesome kind of music, which is different than what many bands are doing. Optimist has some sweet jams. "White Noise" has a great intro. Prepare to be melted in a metallic wash of BM, post-rock and plaintive melodic musings.